Home
by Five Dollar Mixtape
Summary: A loner is making his way back to Twoleg Place, with a twist.


_I've been around_

 _Seen a million places_

 _But I ain't never been nowhere like that_

 _Home is where the heart is_

 _It never really changes_

 _But you sure as hell will always come back_

 _People come and go_

 _Faces always changing_

 _Population nearly growing everyday_

 _I've been watching as they go_

 _Walking back and forth_

 _Going back to see their source_

 _I've been working hard_

 _Working every hour_

 _Just to try and get a place up in the hills_

 _I can watch them live_

 _Watching as they work_

 _People going back to work and to home_

 _I've been around_

 _Seen a million places_

 _But I ain't never been no where like that_

 _Home is where the heart is_

 _It never really changes_

 _But you sure as hell will always come back_

* * *

This was it.

All of this had started three seasons ago. Their large group had been harassed and controlled by an even larger and stronger group for generations: one that had forced them to give up their prey and sometimes even their cats. Their leader had had enough. They had sent out a small group to trail the other group back to their home, while the rest of their cats had trained for battle relentlessly.

It took four moons for the cats to come back, and they were ready to lead the way.

It was a two moon long journey, from Twoleg Place to the forest that the group lived in. Only the best fighters went with their leader, but they were determined that they could take on the larger group.

Their leader had given them a speech before they attacked. That old cats would forget plenty of things, but this battle and their names would never be one of them. They were a band of brothers and sisters who put the group before themselves despite the risks and that would never be overlooked. Their leader considered them family, and because of that the fallen of this battle would never be forgotten, their names passed down from generation to generation.

"You ready for this, Arev?" The dark ginger tom with cream paws and chest with bright green eyes looked over at the dark and light gray tabby next to him. Every strand of the tabby's fur was shaking with exhilaration: he was obviously excited for the battle ahead.

Arev nodded. "As ready as I can be," he meowed. "What about you?"

"Very ready," the tabby responded. "We need our freedom back, and hey," the tabby gave the ginger tom a nudge. "When you get back you'll have a story to tell your kits!"

Arev purred in agreement. "I hope so, I think they'd like to hear about the forest," he meowed, looking up at the trees that towered above their heads. "I hope they'll see one, someday."

The tabby shook his head. "You haven't even met them yet and you're sappy."

"You'll understand someday, Ego."

Ego scoffed. "If you say so. What she-cat would want to be with a tom named Ego?"

Arev shrugged. "There has to be one somewhere. I suffer through you."

"Hey!" The ginger and cream cat just purred in response. Their leader's tail flicked: the order to get into positions. Ego nudged Arev with his shoulder. "Good luck, okay? Gael's going to want you in one piece."

"I'm sure she will. Good luck to you, too."

* * *

" _I'm having kits."_

 _With those three words meowed, Arev was re-evaluating his decision to go on this mission. He already knew that only the best fighters were going, the rest were staying behind to guard the cats staying behind to keep the other cats off their trail, but if Gael was having kits? What was he supposed to do then?_

 _The beautiful, fawn colored she-cat took a step closer to him. "I still want you to go on the mission."_

" _But-"_

" _I don't want our kits to be controlled. They need freedom. You can give them that."_

 _Arev nodded after a few heartbeats of hesitation. "Only the best for our kits."_

 _Gael purred in agreement, blue eyes glittering. "Just come back safe and sound."_

* * *

Arev sat on the top of the enemy camp, looking at the aftermath of the battle. They had won. There were casualties on each side, but Arev's group had out fought and out lasted the other group and driven them away.

Arev looked at the bodies that littered the ground, or at least the ones that mattered. The ones from his group. There was a dark brown she-cat with her neck twisted at an odd angle, her golden eyes dull. He recognized her as Orion. There was a russet colored tom whose fur was stained crimson, whose eyes were closed. He was still breathing shallowly, but Arev knew blood loss would get to him soon. The cats here only knew about basic healing. His name was Quest. There was a blue-gray and black she-cat with dull amber eyes with blood still spilling from her neck and her legs still giving small twitches, who he recognized as Icon.

And, finally, he saw a ginger and cream tom with dull, green eyes that had already drying blood around his neck. When he looked down at himself, he could see the ground through his paws.

He was a ghost.

"Ego, are you okay?" a voice asked. He looked up to see the Second in Command, a rusty colored she-cat with one blue eye and one green eye. Ego was standing in front of Arev's body, looking down at it.

"He was protecting me," he meowed in barely a whisper. "He died protecting me."

"I'm sorry," she meowed, sitting down next to the tabby. "But he died for us, and we won for him. It's the same for Orion, Quest, and Icon, as well."

"Quest isn't dead yet," Ego argued.

"We can't do anything for him."

* * *

Arev saw Orion, Quest, and Icon for a bit, but they all decided that they wanted to wander. Icon paused and looked at Arev for a heartbeat.

"You know," she meowed. "When my father died, he came to me and my littermates in dreams. Maybe you should wander around a little bit, find a ghost and learn some tricks before going back home."

Arev nodded. "Thank you, Icon."

She purred. "You have kits waiting for you, they should meet their father at least once."

* * *

Arev padded through the forest, his tail flicking as a translucent shape bounced out in front of him. She was a bit smaller than himself, with light brown fur and green eyes. "Hey!" she meowed happily. "It's been awhile since I've seen another ghost!"

Arev dipped his head. "I've been looking for one, I need to learn some tricks." She grinned.

"Well, you've come to the right place!" she meowed happily. "I'm Ivy."

"Arev," the tom introduced with a nod of his head.

"C'mon, I'll take you to the perfect place," Ivy meowed, turning on her heel and leading the way into the forest. The tom followed at her heels, watching as the trees gained dew drops on the bark that glittered in the sunlight. Ivy stopped in front of a pool that was lined with slick stone, making the forest around them look greener.

"Wow," Arev meowed, looking down at the water.

"I know, it's great," the she-cat meowed. "You know what's even cooler? This!" Ivy got into a crouch, her muscles bunching, before leaping into the water. Arev let out a yell, but it was too late. She was submerged without so much as a splash. She lifted her head out of the water without a ripple. "We can even breathe under there! Come on, jump in!"

Arev violently shook his head. "I'm from Twoleg Place. I don't know how to swim." Ivy's eyes narrowed. Her fur didn't even look wet.

"Well, we'll have to work on that too."

* * *

"All our ghostly powers let us do is walk through things, enter dreams, and sometimes possess cats," Ivy meowed. "Some cats have a higher connection to our world than others, and we can talk to them or they can see us or something."

"Our world?" Arev asked.

"Look around," the brown furred cat ordered. The ginger and cream tom listened, turning his head to look at the trees and green around him.

"It's… dimmer from when I was alive."

"Exactly."

* * *

"Focus," Ivy ordered, padding in circles around Arev. "Focus on your body, and making yourself feel lighter." He did, and opened his eyes to look down at himself once he felt as light as the air around him. He saw nothing where his paws should have been.

* * *

"Are you sure that you don't want to stay?" Ivy asked, tilting her head. Arev shook his head.

"I'm sorry, but I have to go see my kits."

The she-cat let out a sigh before nodding. "It's okay, good luck with them."

Arev dipped his head. "You, too. Thank you for teaching me everything."

"No problem."

The tom turned and went on his way.

* * *

Arev saw a meadow in front of him, along with three different ghosts that were snarling at him. He went 'intangible', as Ivy called it, and ran through the cats, becoming tangible once he was through them. But, those meadow cats were fast, racing after him through their territory. He saw a hole in the earth and jumped into it, the cats stopping at the top of the hole.

As it turned out, that hole was the entrance to a tunnel. He padded through the darkness with the guidance of his whiskers.

It took him three days to get out of those tunnels.

* * *

"Who are you?"

The cats in front of him had stars in their fur, and their paws weren't even touching the ground. There were two of them: one had blue eyes and black fur and the other had yellow eyes and cream fur.

"You're about to enter Clan territory," the cream she-cat meowed.

"We'd suggest that you go around it," the black tom added.

"You didn't answer my question," Arev growled, his hackles rising.

"We don't have to tell you," they meowed.

"What, do you have to kill me if you tell me?"

No response.

"You're just as dead as I am, I can go through those territories if I want." Their hackles rose. He sighed, deciding to go through a different route. "Listen, I just want to go home to my kits." They blinked.

"Your kits?" the she-cat asked. Arev nodded.

"Explain," the tom ordered.

And he did. About the larger group overpowering his, about Gael telling him she was having kits, to the battle. The cats nodded when he was done explaining. They looked at each other, as if they were having a silent conversation. "We'll guide you through Clan territory, it'll be faster to get to Twoleg Place that way," the she-cat meowed.

"Thank you," Arev meowed, dipping his head.

"My name is Frozendust," the cream cat meowed.

"I'm Ridgethroat," the tom put in.

 _Strange names,_ the ginger and cream tom thought. "Arev."

* * *

Arev dipped his head to the cats- _warriors,_ he had found out. "Thank you for all your help."

Ridgethroat shook his head. "You have kits to get home to."

Frozendust nodded in agreement. "Have fun with them."

Arev purred. "Good luck with the Clans, it must be hard to guide them."

They sighed. "Tell me about it."

The ginger and cream tom turned on his heels. "Hey, wait, I had a question," Frozendust meowed. He turned his head to look back at the warriors. "What does Arev mean?"

"Sun," he replied. "Why are your names so long and complicated?"

Ridgethroat purred in amusement. "The first part of our names are what our mothers thought fit us in description. The second part fits our personality." Arev nodded.

"It's creative."

* * *

The tom looked up at the buildings of Twoleg Place, anticipation building inside him to see his kits. It took him three moons to get here: they were two moons away from starting training. What had Gael named them? Did they look more like Gael, like him, or a perfect mix? How many were there?

He bounded forward, sprinting his way through Twoleg Place. Excitement burned under his pelt. Finally, _finally,_ he approached the alley where his group lived.

"Sol!" he heard the sound of Gael yowling. He looked down at a mostly cream colored kit with a bit of fawn on the tips of her ears and on her toes. His ears perked when he heard the name. _Sol is another word for sun, isn't it? So… she named her after me._

Sol turned her head to look at Gael, and Arev thought she looked just as beautiful as ever. A bit worn out, but still beautiful. He decided he had to come to her in a dream, as well, but after his kits.

"You can't leave the alley, yet! You've had no training!"

"But I wanna see the rest of Twoleg Place!" Sol complained. "Playing with Alpine and Verna all the time is boring!"

Arev purred, sitting down. _Well, you have Gael's fire._

"Where are Alpine and Verna?" Gael asked, looking around the alley.

"We're here, Gael!" A ginger tom with fawn paws, tail, ears, and dots under his blue eyes squirmed out from under a bit of cardboard. "We were just playing a game!" A cream and fawn tabby she-cat with green eyes followed at his heels.

"Alpine shoved me under some cardboard," the she-cat complained. _If the tom is Alpine, then the she-cat must be Verna._

"Well, maybe you should take a nap," Gael meowed, shoving her kits towards the Mother's Den.

"But Gael!" Sol complained.

"No complaining," Gael meowed, "I need sleep, so you're going to get some, too. And as soon as you start your training, you'll be begging for a nap."

The kits let out grumbles, but no more complaints were heard.

* * *

Arev watched as his kits looked around their dream. Sol's eyes went from Verna to Alpine, back to Verna. "You aren't usually in my dreams," she meowed.

"Yeah, you aren't," Verna meowed in agreement.

"He isn't either," Alpine meowed, his eyes on Arev. The older tom curled his tail around his paws. The other two kits eyes turned to him.

"Who're you?" Sol asked, her hackles raised as she stepped in front of her siblings.

"My name is Arev," he meowed. Their green and blue eyes widened. "I'm guessing you've heard of me."

"You're our father!" Verna meowed excitedly. "And you died in the fight against that other group!"

Arev nodded. "Those are both true."

"What's fighting like?" Alpine asked, racing up to the older tom and looking up at him. "Is it fun?"

"It's…" Arev hesitated. "Exhilarating, in a way. You're only paying attention to the fight, and nothing else matters."

"What's hunting like?" Sol asked.

"It's much easier than fighting."

* * *

"Arev?" the she-cat asked, her voice wavering.

Arev purred. "Hi, Gael. Sorry it took me so long to come home."

He let out an 'oof' as he got tackled to the ground, his face covered in licks. "I've missed you so much," Gael murmured, nuzzling into his cheek.

"I know," Arev meowed. "I have, too. But I'm home now."

* * *

" _Old men forget, yet all shall be forgot, but he'll remember, with advantages, then shall our names, familiar in his mouth as household words- Arthur the King, Merlin and Gwaine, Lancelot and Elyan, Leon and Percival; from this day to the ending of the world, but in it we shall be remembered- we few. We happy few, we band of brothers, for he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother."_


End file.
